The present invention relates to a plastic waste can preferably for the collection of oily wastes such as oily rags or other combustible material.
Waste cans for the collection of oily wastes, such as oily rags used around machinery, must provide functions that conventional waste cans do not provide. The cans must be sturdy and provided with a cover to close off the receptacle of the waste can. Also, a user should be able to open the cover without the use of hands and the cover must be self-closing so that a user need not take any action to close the cover. This ensures that the cover will be closed and the contents closed off from the environment regardless of the actions of the user at all times, except when one deposits or removes the oily wastes.
Early examples of such oily waste cans are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,236,429, 1,601,930, 1,754,802 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,216,279. Such oily waste cans, as well as an earlier waste can manufactured and sold by the assignee of the present invention were formed from metal and required stamping and forming of metal parts and welding, soldering, riveting or otherwise connecting various parts together to form an assembled waste receptacle which involved expense of time and material. In the aforementioned earlier metal waste of the present assignee, a triangular shaped metal receptacle portion was provided with a pivotally mounted metal cover, the cover attached to a pair of links that were, in turn, attached to a foot pedal for pivotal movement to open the cover. The cover had a downwardly extending lip around its periphery with the flat surface of the cover resting on the upper rim of the receptacle. An upstanding stop member, secured to the rear wall of the receptacle prevented the cover from opening beyond a range that would prevent the cover from closing of its own weight when the foot pedal was released.
Such earlier oily waste receptacles are expensive to produce both because of material costs as well as labor costs in assembling the receptacles.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a receptacle for oily wastes which is assembled from plastic units formed by blow molding of a thermoplastic material.
It is another object of the present invention to form a thermoplastic oily waste receptacle that is assembled by snap-fitting of components together and requires minimum labor for assembly.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a thermoplastic waste receptacle that has a self-closing cover which is operable by a foot pedal.